By Grace L. Rogers 



THE SCHOLFIELD 



WOOL-CARDING 



MACHINES 



First to appear among the inventions that sparked the industrial 

 revolution in textile making ivas the flying shuttle, then various 

 devices to spin thread and yarn, and lastly machines to card the raiv 

 fibers so they could be spun and woven. Carding is thus the im- 

 portant first step. For processing short-length wool fibers its 

 mechanization proved most dijficult to achieve. 



To the United States in 1793 came John and Arthur Scholfield, 

 bringing with them the knowledge of how to build a successful wool- 

 carding machine. From this contribution to the technology of our 

 then itifatit country developed another new industry. 



The Author: Grace L. Rogers is curator of textiles. Museum 

 of History and Technology!, in the Smithsonian Institution' s United 

 States National Museum. 



CARDING IS THE NECESSARY preliminary step by 

 which individual short fiiacrs of wool or cotton 

 are separated and cleaned of foreign materials so they 

 can be spun into yarn. The thoroughness of the card- 

 ing determines the quality of the yarn, while the posi- 

 tion in which the carded fibers are laid determines its 

 type. The fibers are laid parallel in order to spin a 

 smooth compact yarn, or they arc crossed and inter- 

 mingled to produce a soft bulky yarn. 



Figure i . — .\n Origi.nal Scholfifxd Wooi.-Card- 

 INO Machink, built by .Arthur Scholfield or under 

 his immediate direction between 1803 and 1814, as 

 exhibited in the hall of textiles of the U. S. National 

 Museum {cat. no. Tiiroo). The exhibits in this 

 hall are part of those being prepared for the enlarged 

 hall of textiles in the new Museum of History and 

 Technology now under construction. (Smilhsoiiian 

 /i/iolo 45396.) 



Primitive Carding 



The earliest method of carding wool was probably 

 one in which, by use of the fingers alone, the tufts were 

 |)ulled apart, the foreign particles loosened and ex- 

 tracted, and the fibers blended. Fuller's teasels 

 (thistles with hooked points, Dispasactis fullomtm). now 

 better known for raising the nap on woven woolens, 

 were also used at a very early date for carding. The 

 teasels were mounted on a pair of small rectangular 

 frames with handles; and from this device developed 

 the familiar small hand card (see fig. 2), measuring 

 about 8 inches by 5 inches, in which card clothing 

 (wire teeth embedded in leather) was mounted on a 

 board with the wire teeili bent and angled toward the 

 handle. The wool was placed on one card and a sec- 

 ond card was dragged acro.ss it, the two hands pulling 

 away from each other. This action separated the 

 fibers and laid them parallel to the handle, in a thin 

 film. After the fibers had been carded in this wav sev- 



P.VPF.R 1 : SCHOLFIELD WOOL-CARDLNG M.ACHINES 



4712 



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